"What is "sawn wear layers"? The wood is not engineering wood?" The wear layer is the top of the constructed board. Thick sawn refers to the thickness of the wear layer, compared to the thickness of the core plies. It is not engineered as defined what they specify engineered wood to be. Balance construction is one requirement. All plies are to be of the same species and the same thickness. The direction of the bottom of the board is to be oriented in the same direction as the top wear layer. An odd number of plies, meet this criteria. What is being constructed more and more, is a thick wear layer. it is bonded/laminated to thinner plies of differing species of wood, for cost, Some of the core plies are of very soft species of wood, with much different shrink and swell numbers. The thick wear layer shrinks and swells just like a solid wood. I see no cupping, which leads me to believe there is no moisture concern with the substrate. Substrate moisture would have taken less than a month to be noticed, and buckle the floor. High humidity and the ability for the concrete to be below dew point temperature.... That is why I asked if you have taken a vacation recently, turning the HVAC so it won't waste electricity while your not there.

lynn2006: thank you, thank you for responding! I'm with you re: color, it's what's steering me too. I need some help here though... I feel like I'm not understanding something: When I mention "Lock" that "floats" to someone they think it's a "laminate" which to me (& maybe them) is like a "picture" of wood. (So there's an instant reaction that Lock would be inferior.) The salesperson said it's REAL WOOD, and also dry sawn cut (vs. rotary cut) so the boards won't have repetitive patterns. My problem is that I have not seen a full sized sample of the Mirage Lock in the Maple-Charcoal color I want, (only small samples of OTHER colors). In the store I physically compared a Lock random color sample (pretty small) to a full sized Engineered sample, same color, and the TOP (stained wood part) indeed appeared to look the same to me. My husband is trying to say that the way he understands it, is the Lock IS hardwood, not a picture, it's (the top stained wood part) just not as thick as the engineered. (of course I understand that Lock has an HDF core vs. the plywood core of Engineered.) My question to you Lynn is: did you get the chance to compare Mirage Lock to a same color of Mirage Engineered both in a full sizes? And does it indeed LOOK the same to you? Also, did your salesperson explain if it "clicked" underfoot? Or looked "wavy" or anything different than the engineered? Thank you SO much for any help : ) (PS: I also like the 4.25" width but was actually considering 5")

Everyone gave me such good advice that I’ve come back for more help! Maybe I should start a new thread for this, but thought I’d start here first. Good news is I’ve corrected some concerns for the moisture issue before our hardwood install. Gutters, exterior drains, crawl space dehumidifiers in crawl space (commercial size) all installed. I’m also working with HVAC & electrical for temporary power to the HVAC system. So I’m feeling comfortable with that. I’ve also decided to go with 7.5” European live sawn engineered core with a 6mm wear layer rather than the 8” solids white oak. Now my issue is staining... I was going to use the loba 2k Supra finish but am now leaning toward an impact oil. Beautiful light to medium floors leaning more gray than red is what I was anticipating until... I realize my stair treads are red oak! I’ve contemplated getting a quote to change out the stair treads, but I have two large staircases and I’m afraid that will cost a fortune. We are well over budget already and still a ways to go. There is a decently large balcony area where the edge for the balusters are also red oak as part of the staircase landing and trim material. The balusters should be going up this week. Any suggestions?? Do I halt the baluster and railing install and have it all switched out (dependent on cost) or is there a way to match/blend the flooring and the stair material? I’ve read about bleaching the red oak, dying green, or staining both dark instead of light. I just don’t know the process of those options or how well it actually works. All advice is appreciated.

I'm shopping now for new flooring. I have 'Mirage real hardwood' in my kitchen that's held up unbelievably well (looks brand new) however now putting new flooring throughout house. The opinions from flooring guys I'm getting are all over the board- from you should only do onsite finished hardwood, to engineered only belongs in a basement, to why waste your $ on hardwood with so many beautiful alternatives, to the high end flooring store where I will most likely end up purchasing telling me to go with the brand new line of Mirage engineered floors that came out this year vs. their hardwood for a fraction of the cost of their hardwood and yes, they say it can be refinished but to the points above- I have never known anyone to refinish their floors unless they were buying a house with 50 year old floors and it needed to be done. I am not considering vinyl at all but am just as confused as the author. Lots of opinions on this topic. I'm in the northeast and asked no less than 8 friends that puchased new, built new or renovated in the past two years what they did and all have said they have engineered wood.